McEvoy-Mitchell, Futrell-Sawaia, Woerner-English, Roberts-Kanthak Win Aliante Tour Titles

The teams of Kevin McEvoy-Matt Mitchell (Championship), Robert Futrell-Joe Sawaia (Senior), Jeffrey English-Pat Woerner (Silver) and Jason Roberts-Chris Kanthak (Net) captured titles in the SNGA Tour Four-Ball event held Feb. 13, 2024 at Aliante GC.–by Bill Bowman, Las Vegas Golf Insider

Championship

Kevin McEvoy and Matt Mitchell birdied five straight holes to start the back nine and breezed to a four-stroke victory in the Championship Division.

For the round, the duo put 10 birdies and eight pars on their scorecard.

“We wanted to have two looks at birdie on as many holes as possible,” McEvoy said. “And we were able to do that except for a couple of holes. And, we made a bunch of them.”

McEvoy added the five straight birdies on the back nine was great but they knew the job wasn’t done.

“When you birdie the first five it can be easy to get ahead of yourself,” he said. “But we did a good job of staying in the moment and we still had good looks coming in.”

McEvoy added the putts they made were mostly mid-range.

“We had a few eight-to-20 footers and a couple of tap-ins here and there,” he said. “We didn’t make anything crazy. We just gave ourselves a lot of good looks and capitalized a lot.”

This was the second outing for the duo.

“We played together at a two-day event at Mountain Falls last year but didn’t play as well,” McEvoy said. “This time it was just a great day overall.”

Championship

McEvoy-Mitchell, 62

Lytle-Fortunato, 66

Horodesky-Bauman, 67

Senior

Robert Futrell and Joe Sawaia played a six-hole stretch in six-under-par–using an eagle, four birdies and a par in that stretch–in winning the Senior Division.

It was their first win as a team having had chances in the past.

“We’ve played together other times and had some close calls,” Sawaia said. “We lost in a scorecard playoff twice so it was nice to get a win this time.”

Sawaia said Futrell’s play in the early going carried the day.

“That stretch (third through eighth hole) we had was just about all my partner,” Sawaia said. “He played really good…actually, he played good all day.”

The team got off to a slow start but didn’t let it deter them.

“We weren’t looking so good after the first hole,” Sawaia said. “We made a really bad bogey on that one but got it going after that.”

And that included an eagle on the par-5 eighth hole.

“Robert hit a great five-wood to about three-feet and made the eagle,” Sawaia said. “It was a great bounceback and kind of erased the first-hole bogey.”

In the end, Sawaia said the team’s putting carried the day.

“We just wanted to have two good looks per hole,” he said. “The pressure is off when you know your partner is going to make an easy par and we capitalized on that a few times.”

Senior

Futrell-Sawaia, 65

Hurlburt-Knievel, 66

Bobroski-Coppens, 67

Silver

Jeffrey English and Pat Woerner birdied three holes in a four-hole stretch to win the Silver crown in a scorecard playoff.

They also birdied the final hole that got them into the scorecard playoff spot.

“We’ve played quite a few times as a team but this is our first win,” English said. “We’ve had quite a few seconds and thirds and this is much better.”

He said the final hole birdie was definitely a team effort.

“I hit my second shot over the green and then chipped back and I was in Pat’s line,” English said. “I gave him the line and he drained it. It worked out well.”

English added he wasn’t surprised Woerner’s putt went in.

“He made four 20-footers and all for birdies,” he said. “That was definitely the key for us today.”

Overall, English said the day was just consistent golf.

“We both hit the ball pretty well and played pretty good golf,” he said. “We just hung in there and then the back nine scoring started happening and we finished up well.”

Silver

x-English-Woerner, 68

Rogers-Dopheide, 68

Anderson-Foggia, 69

x-Won a scorecard playoff

Net

Jason Roberts and Chris Kanthak started and finished strong in winning the Net Division title.

The team played the first three holes in four-under-par (a net eagle and two net birdies) and had birdies on the final two holes (one natural and one net) in posting the victory.

“We just played pretty clean golf,” Kanthak said. “It worked out well for us.”

Kanthak said the game-plan simple: “We just stuck to our own games,” he said. “We didn’t stray from it at all and ham and egged it well.”

He added the start certainly got them in a good frame of mind.

“Once we got through the first few holes playing that well, we thought we might have a chance…if we played well,” he said.

They did just that.

“When we got through the front nine and saw we had the lead, we just wanted to play solid golf,” Kanthak said. “Luckily whenever one of us had a bad tee shot, the other one clutched up and hit a good one.”

This was the first time the duo had teamed up in a tournament…but it might not be the last.

“I told Jason that the next one is in August,” Kanthak said. “And if our schedules line up, we will be there.”

Net

Roberts-Kanthak, 63

Freymueller-Day, 67

Sisley-Appellof, 67